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Mechanics of Alternate Realities
Here's a more in-depth discussion of the mechanics of alternate realities and how they result in the coexistence of science and magic in the multiverse of Orbis Terrae. Three-Dimensional Time Woah. Heady. Okay, so the standard conception of time is an arrow, linear and always moving forward. Basic time travel allows one to either change the direction and rate of movement along that continuum, or to hop around to different points on the line. But the future is uncertain, so it can also be seen as a probabilistic cone—the near future is easier to predict than the far future, so the possibilities expand the further forward you go. I believe that the past can similarly be seen as a cone of uncertainty. The further into the past we go, the less sure we are about what happened. (If you know more about this from a scientific/mathematical perspective, please feel free to fill me in. I'm just winging it here) One can also side-step the present without moving into the past or future, entering an alternate reality. That reality could have split from the past at any point, or from a more probabilistic perspective, it could be seen as sharing a similar cone of possible pasts, but with a different apex or outcome. The further one gets from the present, the further back the split, or the more dissimilar the range of possible pasts. So, where does the third dimension come in? Remember that multiple pasts could have resulted in our present. Following from this, one possible timeline (from the one-dimensional concept of time) could conceivably intersect with another at multiple points, while remaining divergent the rest of the time. A third timeline must be capable of intersecting or avoiding intersection with the other two in a pattern completely unrestricted by the limitations of a two-dimensional plane. So ... how exactly does this result in magic? Here's where things get really interesting. Everyone has their own timeline! As far as the mechanics of Orbis Terrae go, a unique point of view = an individual reality = a distinct timeline. Science requires repeated observation, confirmed by third parties. It cannot by definition operate from one perspective alone. It requires consensus. What if our world was created by such a consensus? The more people there are in the world, the greater the density of coexisting, intersecting timelines, requiring a more deeply connected and rigorously consistent consentual reality. When there were fewer people and less communication, reality was more vaguely and individually defined. Thus, in the past, there was the perception of magic. If a susceptible individual perceives magic, that individual will likely conclude that magic is real. They may be able to convince several others of the same. Their consentual timeline is thus one in which magic exists. What they won't be able to do is transplant that magic into the consentual reality in which science, as a philosophy, is dominant. The power of skepticism through mass perception will drive that magic to the margins and render it unobservable. This is what establishes the difference between Orbis Terrae and Earth. On Terrae, magic remained dominant in the minds of the general populace, leaving science and skepticism at the margins. What interests me is the examination of the resultant "fantasy" world through the lens of science.